What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to assess whether the Moroccan DOC can effectively address modern ecological issues despite its historical context.

June 17, 2026Open Access

The Dahir of Obligations and Contracts and Ecological Damage: The Environment at the Boundaries of Nuisance Law

Key Points

The aim is to assess whether the Moroccan DOC can effectively address modern ecological issues despite its historical context.
Analysis of the Dahir of Obligations and Contracts (DOC) and its provisions related to nuisance law.
Examination of legal mechanisms that may accommodate contemporary environmental challenges.
Discussion of the implications of an aging legal framework on addressing ecological harm.
Proposes that the DOC may still hold relevance in addressing ecological damage.
Suggests potential pathways within existing civil laws to recognize and address environmental concerns.
Challenges the notion that the DOC is too outdated to be applicable in modern ecological contexts.

Abstract

Mohamed Ali Mekouar asks whether the Moroccan DOC, despite its age, can address modern ecological damage. He notes that environmental degradation is a defining phenomenon of the late 20th century, yet the DOC dates from 1913, long before such concerns emerged. Is it not illusory to seek ecological solutions in an aging code whose drafters could not have foreseen industrial pollution or resource depletion? Mekouar refuses to answer too hastily in the affirmative, suggesting that condemning the DOC for senility would be premature. Instead, he explores whether legal mechanisms at the borders of traditional nuisance law (voisinage) might offer pathways for recognizing ecological damage within the existing civil framework.

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